as always we will take your calls and you can join the conversation at facebook and twitter. washington journal is next. ♪ a very good morning to you. it is saturday, august 13. we will talk about politics and the economy this morning. both of the candidates gave speeches in michigan explaining how they would jumpstart hiring and growth. donald trump renewed his call to renegotiate america's free-trade deals and said he would ban new regulations. hillary clinton is promising the largest investment and job creation since world war ii. we want to hear from you. what the you think is the biggest issue facing the economy? here are the lines to call this morning. if you make less and $50,000 a year, call us at (202) 748-8000. does making between $50,000 and

$100,000 a year, (202) 748-8001. if you make more than $100,000 a year, your number is (202) 748-8002. you can also share your thoughts with us on social media. thatacebook page is facebook.com/c-span. frankw research center issues but are celist most important. you can see the economy rights of the top with 84% of registered voters saying that issue is very important to them here in 2016. terrorism is the second most important issue, with 80% saying it is important. foreign policy ranks third at 75%. , tradebottom of the list policy. 57% say that is important to them.

abortion, 45% say that is the most important issue. treatment of gay, lesbians and transgender people as the most important issue they see facing the economy. both of the residential candidates were on the campaign trail this week talking about their plans to fix the economy. what they feel can be done to boost economic growth. here is hillary clinton talking about how the private sector can create new jobs. [video clip] mrs. clinton: a big part of our plan will be unleashing the power of the private sector to create more jobs and higher pay. that means for us -- [applause] infrastructure banks to get private funds off the sidelines and complement our private investment. billion in government seed

funding could unlock more than $250 billion and really get our country moving on our infrastructure plans. and we are going to invest $10 billion and what we are calling make it in america partnership to support american manufacturing and recommit to scientific research that can create entire new industries. host: our question for you this morning is what is the biggest problem facing the economy? voters right the economy is the most important issue to them this election season. here is donald trump on the importance of reducing corporate taxes. [video clip] mr. trump: under my plan no american company will pay more than 15% of their business income in taxes. [applause]

words, we are reducing your taxes from 35% to 15%. [applause] thank you. thank you. small businesses will benefit the most from this plan. hillary clinton's plan but require small business said pay as much as three times more in taxes than what i'm proposing. and her owners regulations will put them totally out of business. you won't be able to start. you cannot ever start a small business under the tremendous regulatory burden you have today in our country. host: let's hear from you now. what you think is the biggest problem facing our economy today? let's turn to shelby, michigan.

michigan or wisconsin. brad, good morning to you. caller: shelby, michigan. i think the biggest problem is jobs. decent paying jobs. workers in the midwest were replaced with hispanics or syrians or whatever for slave wages. when used to be a decent paying job is no longer decent. i remember clinton talking about the free trade agreement, how wonderful it was going to be. 70 said it might be a good thing. anything you buy anymore says "made in china." host: what you think is the solution? caller: someone strong that knows that he is doing going and saying, china, you are not going to nuclear currency and get top of these people -- manipulate

currency and get tough with these people. that is not the american way. you get up and fight for your country. you don't go around apologizing for it. callerext color is bu -- is butch from ohio. with you think is the biggest problem? caller: the biggest problem is the terrorists. they are not finished, they are not done yet. they have dental traded our american bases in the last week or so. they showed it to us americans. hillary clinton talked about jobs. these establishment politicians have been there for hundreds of years. they have not done anything. all they do is give us a bunch of promises and we get nowhere. these terrorists are going to come in and we have a blind eye to these people. the economy ain't going to matter. look at these other countries where these terrorists have taken over. we need somebody that will kick the craft out of the terrorists.

host: we hear you this morning. let's take our next caller from hagerstown, maryland. terry, what you think is the biggest problem facing the economy? caller: i think we need to avoid s.third term of obamanomic higher taxes, more spending, more government regulations. she's saying how we need repair our crumbling roads. what was that $800 billion stimulus that obama and the democratic congress ran through? i don't like to pay for something more than one time. they are talking about the big banks, going after wall street. the same wealth envy they claim every election. more and more people are falling for it. we cannot treat the private sector as the enemy when you are telling them we need to have employing people and giving them good paying jobs. if there is a business that can

save a fortune i can move out of the country to make more money and profit, they are going to do that. host: are you working right now? caller: yes. i am one of the few people who has a full-time job. 10 years at the end of this month with the same employer. i've seen my taxes go up, my health care costs go up which was supposed to go down under obamacare. the work is there for us. nobody has been laid off. i am a lucky guy. host: our next caller is from philadelphia, pennsylvania. for calling on the line those making over $100,000 a year. what is the biggest problem facing our economy? caller: clearly it is people without skills or education. it is stagnant wages. yourif you are working, wages have not been going up.

those who are not fortunate enough like my wife and i, those who have college degrees. and if you don't have that, it's very tough. it's very, very difficult for them to make a living. host: what do you think should be done in order to ensure wages can grow? is get i think the first the minimum wage. it at $7.25 for the last 20 years. index it to inflation like social security or federal -- whatever. guarantee the minimum wage goes up every year and set of staying where it is. tyronenother caller, from philadelphia. calling of the life of is the make less than $80,000 a year. what does it look like from where you sit? caller: i am retired.

-- we have to give her people preparation. a proper education to go to these jobs. case in point, take the average car dealer. the old-time mechanic is gone. you cannot do it by ear. everything is electronic, everything is computers. we have to have a workforce that can move into those jobs. that is going to cost -- across the board. we have people that are prepared to do work, but not prepared for the job skills. as long as we had that we will have that vacuum. we are moving into a hot high-tech society. we are moving away from old industry. we haven't prepared our people to move forward. therefore we have that gap. and it's our fault.

we can talk about the president, the vice president, anything. but in unprepared nation is a nation that cannot do anything in a new global society. it will never work. host: that was tyrone from philadelphia. let's hear from larry in washington, d.c. good morning go ahead. caller: the biggest problem is america is no longer a manufacturing economy. it's a service economy. america has the highest global corporate tax, 39.1%. they talk about these individuals on capitol hill. producing. is not it's a service economy. , stopve to produce

handicapping the small business. let them go. the illegal flow of aliens make americans unimportant. the gold standard, it's not going to work. the manipulation of the stock market and so forth. you have to do what is right for america and not sell the country out. host: the washington -- the wall street journal reports that donald trump has added eight women to his economic advisory team. donald trump on thursday expanded his advisory council, adding eight women to the 14 men named of the past week. including a washington economist advocating the gold standard. californiaof the private equity fund into midwestern manufacturing

executives. to campaign also added the team dominated by big-name male financers anthony skerritt lucci, another hedge fund director acting as a top campaign fundraiser. the appointed as follow criticisms that the first set of advisors didn't include any women. on the campaign trail this week donald trump talked about the opposition to tcp, transpacific partnership. and the problem with bad trade deals [video clip] mr. trump: that is why i have announced we will withdraw from the deal before that can ever, ever happen. [applause] hillary clinton will never withdraw from tpp. she is bought, controlled and paid for by her donors and special interests. 100%. [applause]

my only interest is the american people. i have previously read out a atailed seven point plan, trade deal available on my website. it includes strong protections against currency manipulation, a big problem. tariffs against any countries that sheet by unfairly subsidizing their goods. and it includes a total renegotiation, of nafta which is a disaster for our country. host: we want to know what you think this morning, what is the biggest problem facing the economy? we will be taking your phone calls in just a minute. we want to bring in another big story of the day. hillary clinton releasing her tax returns. joining us to talk about it and give us a little bit more information about what is included in this returns is lili browning, the tax reporter for

bloomberg news. thank you for joining us this morning. what did we find out from hillary clinton's tax returns that were released yesterday? what does that tell us about the state of her finances? guest: the state of her finances are quite robust and quite healthy. she and bill clinton had adjusted gross income of $10.6 million last year. they paid $3.6 million in federal income taxes. they pay just over one third of their taxable income in taxes. what is interesting is that the income figure puts clinton in the very wealthiest elite group of people in this country according to economists who works on wealth inequality at the university of california berkeley. the clintons are easily within the top .1%. they are just about to crack it

into the top .01%. that is based on income, not based on wealth. host: both hillary clinton and donald trump made appeals to the working class. how does this this revelation of exactly how much she makes square with her attempts to connect with working people? guest: it may very well complicate those attempts. hillary clinton is trying to appeal to lower and middle income voters and she is doing of having toition disclose these returns that shows she is anything but. that said, donald trump's own tax proposals and tax policies may also have complications when it comes to appealing to lower and middle income voters. he is proposing tax cuts that would accrue to them, but the cuts would have a greater share

the benefits go to the very wealthiest. that can complicate things from that end as well. host: donald trump is not yet released his own tax returns. do you know the campaign is saying about when and if that will happen? guest: it's impossible -- the comments change routinely. the general upshot is that donald trump said he cannot release his tax returns because he is under audit by the irs. that doesn't preclude a presidential candidate from releasing the return, or as one source told me yesterday, if you're not going to release the return, give us data points. what was your income? how much in taxes you pay? with that make for an effective rate? what are your charitable donations? it is not like the irs doesn't know that information already. host: how did hillary clinton's tax returns compared with previous presidential candidates?

does it look in line with what we have seen from candidates in the past? guest: she and bill clinton have done very well for themselves. their income is from speaking fees, arrangements and book deals. they are doing quite well for themselves. guest: the campaign -- host: the campaign released the tax returns of tim kaine and his wife. guest: to be honest the returns of hillary clinton garnered way more attention. kaine and his wife paid a much lower federal tax rate. 2015pay just over 20% in for 2015.0 they paid about 1/5 of their adjusted gross income in taxes. revealed over the

past decade they donated 7.5% of their income to charity. paid a lower effective tax rate but they made a lot less than the clintons did in 2015. guest: indeed. reporter and bloomberg news, think he sought for joining us this morning. guest: my pleasure. host: here is a little bit more from lunnle's browning's story. the clintons paid $3.6 million in taxes. that is from what her campaign released on friday. this is a stark contrast to donald trump. this replace him well within the top .1% of earners based on data from the 2015 tax year. according to an economist that specializes in income inequality. the effective tax rate is 34.2% and they donated 9.8% of their adjusted gross income to charity, including a $1 million gift to the clinton family foundation.

is family foundation, which separate from the better-known clinton foundation, visit hillary and bill clinton as the only donors in the 2014 tax filing. we will return to your phone calls now. we want to know what you think the biggest problem is facing the economy. adam is up next from north carolina. on the line between $50,000 and $100,000 a year. caller: good morning. i actually am a phd economist from duke university. i am calling because i think the important thing to address -- i wanted to ask your guests a question. apparently she will not be around. i think the single most important thing to examine in this idea in front of us with respect to the economy is that

--are in a state of maine someone touched on earlier where the percentage of manufacturing jobs is so precipitous. all the things, the jobs, the economic benefits that come along with a company being here in the united states really has a two minutes benefit. thingk first and foremost which may be unrelated but absolutely is related at the key core is reform of campaign-finance laws. these corporations are able to get away with inversions, with moving industries overseas and they are taking and siphoning jobs away from the american people. and they are returning with the same products inundate us with. the last thing i would say is, and one of your guests could clear this up, this is a

question more than anything. businessbelieve small businesses stacked the deck against small businesses so they can never grow. big business is the best cuts in taxes. i know this to be a fact. if you could please have somebody address in a formal setting on the show the issue of how these taxes -- what is the real tax rate? americacompany here in does pay a 30% tax rate. and the wealthy do pay the vast majority of taxes. it is the uber rich they get away with it. if you would, please address that. campaign finance number one. host: let's turn now to florida. geraldine is on the line it is a

make less than $50,000 a year. what are your thoughts and the economy today? caller: thank you for taking my call. there are several things that relates to the average person locally and nationwide. i am concerned about utility companies raising their rates and on people with low income, we have companies who have class action suits. andthen they turn around add additional charges to your cable bill. we also have the problem with cable companies, phone companies, the insurance rates going up on people. and also we have private water companies coming into communities and taking over water. the water areas and driving up the costs of water. on the tolleases

roads that so many people in florida are complaining about. toll roads everywhere. south florida, central florida. we have problems with the supermarket. we have companies who are the packaging and increasing the rate on food. taxes, have property food taxes increasing. and one of the main things i'm concerned about is financial reform. high interestg rates on credit cards where people can barely pay off the credit card. and not enough increases on our savings. some of those -- these are the main issues i am concerned about. candidatesaring the talk about these issues. twitter, we need less

government regulations and taxes on small companies that can grow and create jobs. those mainstream candidates are big government. the biggest problem facing our economy is the disinformation saying we have major problems with our economy. the biggest economic problem? hanging onto the field of public -- reaganomics theory, it only works for the wealthy. larry from dallas is the next caller. caller: thank you for having me this morning. i sympathize with the sentiments of geraldine in florida, as well as the previous caller. i understand job growth really is the most important issue because without a job really nothing else matters. without a good paying job and not being underemployed, rather keeping up with inflation, it's

very important. the geraldine commented on, credit card interest rates are going on. electric is going up, phone is going up. all those things are not as important when you think about it as long as your jobs are keeping up and your paychecks are keeping up. host: are you working right now? caller: yes. have you seen any changes in your wages? caller: i am a direct reflection of the manufacturing industry. i used to work with a company that was united states-based manufacturing. lory, thank you for your call. let's hear from lee in melbourne, florida. but you think this morning? caller: i think the biggest problem is education. as i listen too often -- washington journal often, i despair for the american people. in line with terrorism, i would

like to remind people we have a greater death rate in car accidents, household accidents, etc. we are not afraid to go out and drive our car. we are not afraid to be in our homes. please remember, terrorism is a small percentage. also remember england put up with the ira bombings for years. let's look at their example. thank you. host: here is a little bit more from hillary clinton's economic speech in michigan this week. she tried to contrast her economic vision with that of donald trump. [video clip] mrs. clinton: i'm working to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. [applause] based on what we know from the trump campaign, he wants america to work for him and his friends at the expense of everyone else. he has offered no credible plan to address what working families are up against today. nothing on student loans or the

cost of prescription drugs. nothing for farmers or struggling rural communities. nothing to build a future with clean energy and advanced agriculture. nothing for communities of color in our cities to overcome the barriers of systemic racism. nothing to create new opportunities for young people. just a more extreme version of the failed theory of trickle down economics with his own addition of outlandish shrunki -- trumpian ideas that even republicans reject. host: what is the biggest problem facing the economy? joanne from pennsylvania. what do you think this morning? caller: good morning. i feel like it is our own government that is the biggest problem. we hire them to work for us. but we don't have the money that the super rich do to line their

pockets for their speeches and everything else. they write their loss to benefit -- laws to benefit them set of us. host: what these you think when you see hillary clinton releasing her taxes showing she and her husband make $10 million last year. donald trump, a wealthy businessman. the feeling like they can connect to the challenges you are facing in your life? caller: i think if she had released her transcripts of the speeches where she made all that money, we would be very happy. we don't care about her income tax. we want to know why this money came to host: joanne from pennsylvania. let's hear now from colin in hagerstown, maryland. caller: i was just thinking that

a lot of the issues we have with the economy are based on the education system, and it is sort of a failure in my opinion. too many people are coming out of our k-12 system unprepared for basic things in life. we should also focus more on trade industries instead of just suggesting that people need to go to college to get a decent living. there is plenty of work out there. welders and even dental hygienist's can start out at $60,000 a year. there is plenty of opportunities . of course that is a two-year degree. andve an associates degree i know when i got into the workforce, many people did not have the proper english writing report -- toed to

complete reports so i have done fairly well being able to write properly. host: next up is joe from florida. good morning. caller: good morning. host: you're on the air. caller: when i wanted to call about is, i really believe the biggest problem our economy has is the government were the democratic party. and our trade deals are and iting manufacturing is keeping manufacturing out of this country. when i was a young man you could get out of high school and go to a factory, and the factories were everywhere because we made everything that was made in the world. you could raise a family and did not have to worry about it. people could get out of college and become managers at these manufacturing facilities. then they had it made.

get a joby can because manufacturing is not in this country anymore. host: that is joe from florida. there is still some time to get your call in and air your thoughts. if you make less than $50,000 a year, the number for you is (202) 748-8000. $100,000 toking $50,000, (202) 748-8001, and more than $100, (202) 748-8002. tommy from new york. caller: good morning, how are you? host: good. caller: my problem is with the democrats also because all they do is tax. anyone who goes to work and they take it to the people who want handouts. they are also worried about every other country in the world except the americans here.

worry about this global economy, where he about us first. betweengo if you made $50,000 and $100,000 it used to be a good job but now one third of it or more is taken out in taxes because people want handouts and that is when hillary and the democrats do. they destroyed the economy and they killed the middle class with their taxes. the republicans are the complete opposite. host: tommy from new york, we hear you. here is a story from abc news that compares the candidates' economic proposals. here is how they rate on the tpp, one of the most controversy all issues on the democratic side. hillary clinton is against it. she helped craft parts of it while secretary of state. she said after she saw the final

draft she composed it because it did not meet her standards. tim kaine has been in favor of it but a clinton made told abc news that the virginia senator will now oppose it. he has previously said he sees it as a way for china to get an economic advantage. richard is calling from wyoming on the line for those who call over -- who make over $100,000 a year. caller: i think we have massive economic bubbles. we have a tech bubble where five of the largest companies in america arotech companies. -- our tech companies. we have a housing market double being re-inflated, and there is no job growth to support these bubbles. we continue to print so much money we cannot even report how much we print anymore. we have negative interest rates around the planet.

never in history have we had anything like that but hopefully we will get through this. printingthink just money is going to help anybody. host: that is richard from wyoming. from spring hill, florida, nancy calling on the line for those making less than $50,000 a year. caller: good morning. host: what do think is the biggest problem facing the economy? caller: as i am retired and i have children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and i think the biggest problem is the national debt. -- that itat hit has has doubled in the past eight years. somebody is going to have to pay this off down the road, and hillary is saying, talking about the billions that she wants to

invest, and i put that in quotes. this is for the same things that was supposed to cover the stimulus package. everything has gone downhill ever since. host: nancy, do you feel that donald trump has addressed the issue of the national debt to your liking? caller: yes, i do. i have my problems with mr. trump, but as far as the economy goes, i think he is much better. i just do not think that hillary can be trusted. host: that is nancy from florida. our next caller is andy from lake oswego, oregon, making over $100,000 a year. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i was a high school math teacher for 30 years and now i'm retired

and play golf a lot. i see many people on golf courses who are business people and they are telling me they cannot find qualified mechanically oriented people to fill their jobs. as a high school math teacher what we are seeing over and over again is this emphasis on you have to go to college, when there are a number of good jobs that do not require a college degree. i would like to see our school system revamped where we could have more emphasis on those basic skills, because there are a lot of good jobs out there were those basic mechanical skills are valuable. and they are just not there right now. the business people i golf with say they would love it if the high schools were producing more people with those skills. texas,arol from eldon, on the line for those who make between $50,000 and $100,000. caller: good morning.

i just wanted to say something to all of the republican callers that have been calling in saying the democrats are the problem with the economy. i just wanted to point out a few facts and one of those is that there is 50 states in the union, and 31 of those states, 62%, have republican governors. states, they have 99 legislative bodies. most of them have a house and a senate, and those 99 legislative bodies, 70% are controlled by republicans. in the u.s.senators senate that are republican, and of course we know mr. ryan in the house of representatives, how much in control the republicans are of the united states house of representatives.

any problems with the economy really lie at the feet of the republicans. everybody always think that democrats are tax and spend democrats, but what we have in --as are, we have cut tax republicans have cut taxes and reduced spending for education and things like that. and then they keep other spending going, and now they are in trouble because the oilfield economy is beginning to slow , lostecause oil has gone 60% of its price. i am tired of hearing everybody bash the democrats when republicans control so much of our economy. host: that is carroll from texas. ted from mclean, virginia is up next. can, what do you think? caller: thank you for c-span. this is my first time calling

your show. i say the biggest problem is the national debt. the national debt is something that is i think more due to the republicans,n the but certainly the republicans are not blame free on that. also i think the previous caller from wyoming had a number of good point. i thought there are a number of very dangerous things happening in the economy right now they just have not come to a head yet but probably will before much longer. host: do you see bubbles? caller: that is what i am talking about, and i think the next crisis, when it occurs, will dwarf the 2008 crisis. i think the problems are bordering on in tractable. i do not think any of the candidates are up to the job. host: are you supporting a third-party candidate?

caller: i do not know who to support. votenot in good conscious for either of the two front runners. i do not know that much about the minor candidates. i have not followed the news that closely, but i just think the problems are coming to a point where they are beginning to be intractable. host: that is can from mclean, virginia. we will be talking about third-party politics for later in the program. a few more minutes left in our first segment to get your call in. bert from detroit is our next caller on the line for those who make less than $50,000 a year. go ahead and turn down your tv. you are on the air. bert? caller: yes.

host: go ahead, you are on the air. caller: good morning. can you guys hear me? host: we hear you. caller: this is my second time getting through to c-span and i think it is a good program. i really enjoy listening to the different arguments. but i do not hear the people --[indiscernible] there was a surplus and when office, -- and nobody is talking about that. and then they talk about handouts, the republicans always talk about handouts. we do have a very serious problem with poverty and if they do not do something, the economy

will never grow. yes, i say the republicans are at fault for the economy and until they get this together and pass a bill that will include everybody, not just the top 1%, we will always have trouble. host: darren from granola, kansas is up next. caller: good morning. i think the problem in our country is with the economy and the fact that we cannot find a good job. 20 years ago we started laboring and you could get a job anywhere you wanted. now, all the good jobs are gone. or can either sell something worked in fast food or something like that. the packing house used to be

good and it pays half of what it is. i currently lost my job to wet backs. host: the next caller is prudence from ogden, utah. she will be our last caller for this segment. caller: good morning, everybody. i do not think there is any help. i really think we have become a failed state and i do not think that whoever you want for president is going to make any difference. our congress can finally act on something, that would make a difference. -- we have been going downhill a long time and it looks like the slides have been greased. host: that concludes our first segment, what is the biggest problem facing the economy was our question. we will have open phones later on in the show so if you did not get your call in, you can call back. we will take a deep dive into

the recently leaked hillary clinton e-mails with sarah westwood, and later we will speak to donald green. we will be right back. ♪ >> coming up this weekend on c-span3,history tv on this evening at 6:00 eastern on the civil war, the history professor at the university of massachusetts amherst talks about how photography can be used to chart american slavery before and after the emancipation. >> we spent a fair amount of time with frederick douglass who wrote extensively about photography and the power of self representation, wrote about the power for african-americans to be able to present themselves as they saw themselves, as they experienced themselves and each

other. >> sunday morning at 10:00 eastern on road to the right rewinds,white house the presidential debate between our gore and george w. bush. >> step one is to make sure we reform the system, to have the system in place that leaves no child behind. stop the business of asking, how old are you, and start asking the question, what do you know? if you do not know what you are supposed to know, we will make sure you do. >> parents ought to have more choices with charter schools and to send their kids to a safe school. i think we need to make education the number one country.in our >> at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the contenders, key figures who ran for the presidency and lost a change political history.

1972 democratic nominee george mcgovern. >> i believe it is possible we will admire this country not simply because we were born here but because of the kind of brave id good land that you and want it to be, and that together we have made it. that is my hope. that is my reason for seeking the presidency of the united. ranunday, ross perot, who as an independent presidential nominee in 1992 and 1996. moralmust set the highest and ethical standards for those who stand in our government, and all of that has got to be changed, and we are going to have to stand at the gate and keep the pressure on, and we will. >> for the complete american history tv schedule, go to c-span.org.

washington journal continues. host: our guest now is sarah westwood, an investigative reporter for the washington examiner to talk about the contents of hillary clinton's andntly released e-mails the conflict of interest between her role as secretary of state and the clinton administration. thank you for joining us. tell us what you learned in this latest batch of e-mails. guest: these e-mails showed some new examples of donors to the clinton foundation going to hillary clinton's team at the state department asking for favors, asking for jobs, asking for access. these are the types of things that hillary clinton was supposed to avoid when she entered a memorandum of understanding with the white house. the fact that there were so many that were notnces as close to the state department in 2015 -- disclosed to the

state department in 2015 raises new questions about whether there was more access given to clinton foundation donors than previously thought. host: was there any evidence of any actual illegal activity occurring or was this simply inappropriate? guest: there has been no evidence of illegal opportunity, and that memorandum of understanding she entered into was not a legal document and was not enforceable. laws,of breaking any which there is no evidence of that happening, there is no consequences that she could face. it raises questions about the appropriateness of her actions and whether they were ethical, and whether she told the truth about the extent to which donors were given preferential treatment at the state department. and the state department's unwillingness to look at this has been causing some of her critics a little bit of headaches because the state department is dismissing

wholesale whether any impropriety took place, without opening any kind of investigation. host: what were some of the barriers that were supposed to be in place between hillary clinton's role as secretary of state and her role at the clinton foundation? guest: the clinton foundation was not supposed to accept foreign donations except from a few key countries and when they did, they were as supposed to disclose them to the state department and have them approved. that did not happen in all cases. it happened in most cases, that as some reporters have discovered, there were some major foreign donations that were not made public. she was not supposed to have any role in the clinton foundation's day to day operation. there was supposed to be a firewall between her diplomatic duties and the clinton foundation. when you see her chief of staff having the kind of involvement that led to interviewing

candidates for top jobs at the foundation, that obviously raises questions about whether hillary clinton's closest aides were keeping her abreast of what the clinton foundation was doing. host: the rnc put out the statement after the release of the e-mails. "today in light of new information, the chairman called on the state department to release thousands of e-mails that hillary clinton lied about and failed to release." reince priebus said, clinton has looked in the eyes of the american people and lied to their face to hide her unethical conduct while furthering her self-interest. what does the hillary clinton campaign say about the possibility of releasing or

finding any of these additional e-mails? caller: they would not be involved in the discussions about when to release them because they are in the custody of the state department. they do not have to answer to the release of these e-mails, it is the state department, and that goes to the frustration that a lot of republicans and critics are feeling, the state department has dragged its feet to be transparent about what took lace. -- took place. there are thousands of e-mails that the fbi recovered that are in the process of being turned over to the state department. obviously, there is a long process of going through those in rejecting the sensitive information before they can get released, but some of these groups have a point that the record would shed light on activities that took place, maybe they would exonerate or maybe raise new questions. the state department is facing a lot of pressure to get these out. host: our viewers can join in

the conversation. if you are listening on c-span radio you can join in. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. .ndependent, (202) 748-8002 you can send us a question over twitter. we are talking with sarah westwood, investigative reporter at the washington examiner. let's take our call for michigan, ryan is on the line. -- brian is on the line. i happen to hold a security clearance, operational intelligence. when you have a security naturece of a top-secret

and you are a custodian of materials, what you have is classified material can be confidential, can be secret or top-secret, and that is the main thing we are talking about. when you are a custodian of this material, you treat all strains the same whether it be confidential, secret, or top-secret because these classifications change. as a custodian who works in the intelligence field, you know just by looking at the material itself that it is in those classifications, so you treat them all the same. so this silliness about, it was not labeled or anything such, is just ignorance, dumb, lies, when everyone to call it. the reason you get a top-secret clearance is because you can handle these materials. ways, cannot have it both she just cannot have it both ways. this is high school stuff

really. you have top-secret clearances right now within your military with 20-year-olds and the reason you get all that responsibility is because they know you can handle it. host: brian for michigan. sarah westwood? fbi,: james comey at the when he delivered his testimony before congress he made clear that hillary clinton was extremely careless with classified information, that the reason his team chose to not bring criminal charges was because he found no evidence that information was handled negligently on purpose. there was no evidence of criminal intent and he did not feel that based on the evidence that was enough to move forward. there are many people who feel the same way as that last caller, that the rules are not written to require intent to move forward on criminal charges, but that is a debate for the legal community about whether that is in harmon.

-- that is a requirement. host: remind us why these e-mails are being released and how these revelations came to light. guest: these revelations came to light through the house select committee on benghazi when they were investigating what happened in the 2012 terror attack. requested copies of e-mails relevant to benghazi and when the state department could not produce any, they discovered hillary clinton was using a private e-mail server set up in her home. the state department went to hillary clinton in 2014 and asked her to turn over all of her work-related e-mails. she had a team of lawyers go through those and produce about 30,000 to the state department. through a freedom of information act lawsuit, the state department was forced to release those on a rolling basis.

the ones we have are the ones hillary clinton chose to turn over. shee were another 30,000 deleted, claiming they were of a personal nature. those few thousand in the process of being transferred from the justice department to the state department and have .et to come out host: what is the role of judicial watch? guest: it is forcing the state department to release e-mails. who recoverednes the clinton foundation related e-mails we are talking about today. lawsuit has forced several depositions. the other group you mentioned, requested a 2012 foia

to find documentation of the number of e-mail addresses that hillary clinton was using. now we know there are several. they were told by the state department at that time there was no documentation of any state department use. in the context of this new information, that has raised red flags about whether the agency knowingly covered up the fact that hillary clinton was using a private e-mail at the fact or if this was a mistake in response. host: carl from berkeley springs, west virginia on the republican line. caller: good morning. theyou folks that believe meeting between bill clinton and loretta lynch, that they talked about grandkids, you probably still believe in santa claus. everything is wired in washington dc. whoever is in has the attorney general working for them, and it is a mess. host: that is carl from west

virginia. sarah, give us some more background on this meeting. guest: it happened late june in phoenix. supposedly the attorney general's plane was on the tarmac and the former presidents tarmacame on the term -- , and it was an impromptu social meeting. the timing of that meeting, a closeys before the fbi their investigation relating to the investigation because folks thought it was corrupt. is it an appropriate that the attorney general who was about to make a decision on his wife on whether she will face criminal charges, are meeting in secret. it was supposed to be kept secret and it was not until a local reported spotted it did it get public. the attorney general herself did admit it was not perhaps the

best judgment to engage in a private meeting with someone who is related to a criminal investigation. host: the next caller is wes from nevada on the democratic line. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to say i have been listening for 30 years to the right to the right wing of the republican party do everything they can to say that hillary clinton is bad, she's horrible. anybody see ofestigating all the e-mails any of these other former secretaries of state. i don't see any of these people -- every sentences and sellable, everything cut and dissect it try to find fault everywhere. ok. we want to mention this

response from hillary clinton spokesperson. he said the right-wing organization behind this lawsuit is attacking the clinton since the 1990's, guest: it's true that there isn't a direct link between a length and the action the state department took. critics say it is the overall pattern. possibly beould explained by individual circumstances. but when you look at the pattern of the donations to the clinton foundation and the actions the state department took it does raise questions and it is impossible to ignore that sometimes the donations and the favors lined up. this is why it has become such an issue for republicans.

maybe one or two coincidences could have occurred but not several. who did you find was the of clinton'serhaps role as secretary of state? guest: these were just people were mentioned in new e-mails that came out this week. --,was a man named gilbert born in lebanon. a very generous donor to the clinton foundation and has been us support or of the campaign since the 1990's. clinton foundation official reaching out to the state department and the -- and demand that he be given access to the point man on lebanon. that clinton can accommodate him as quickly as possible. that's the kind of thing that might not be a big deal to some

of her critics, but what you look at the fact that he was not the only donor that was given immediate access to high-level state department officials, that's a can of thing that raises concern about whether donors are given high-level axis in the clinton administration. meeting between him and the state department officials occur? guest: we don't know. that's one thing the clinton campaign has wanted out, you are not looking at the overall pattern. we don't have any idea if the maturity -- if the meeting materialize. ae reason it has not become greater controversy is because we are only getting tiny glimpses. michael on the republican line from pennsylvania. caller: thank you for c-span. thank you for ms. westwood's work.

my question has to do with the number of investigative journalists which have declined significantly in the last few years. it seems to me ironic that the only people who are bringing suits now are judicial watch and organizations like that that have the clout to force the government to -- touce some of these expose some of these acts and things like that. soit a reason that there are few were investigative journalists? on the freedom of information act, the law has been enforced in recent years that it is almost impossible to releasee government to documents unless you have the resources to take the government to court.

that is the reason why open .ecords have pursued back becomesf something that affects the law. if speaks to the fact that this administration has not been forthcoming when it comes to releasing documents that judicial watch has been in litigation over this civic case for years now. politico received several of the bill clinton speeches in response to my request six years ago and they just receive the documents on monday. it is very difficult for smaller news outlet or freelance because they don't have the time or the mind to take them government to court. host: democratic line from maryland. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. please don't cut me off.

i would like to challenge your investigation as criminality. are you trying to expose all of our secrets? how the state department gathers our information? benghazi was a cia operation that the state department fell upon that went very bad. you don't talk about stuff like in best to get his reporters back in the day. this is not the pentagon papers. this is not watergate. who is rupert murdoch convicted of hacking phones of what,people using it as yellow trash journalism. host: all right, we believe it there. a response? guest: i don't think hillary retired-- if she had

after being secretary of state i don't think people would be digging through her e-mails. hillary clinton is facing a level of scrutiny for a reason. people every concerns on both sides of the aisle that she may have mishandled information. still supporters her in spite of what took place but they do have concerns about whether she had an inappropriate relationship with contributors to her family's foundation and when she -- whether she took the appropriate steps to handle material. these are things she does need to confront if she wants to be president. it is relevant to hold this type of microscope up to her activities. on thehampaign, illinois and caroline. i'mer: i would like to say a big supporter of the idea of c-span and watch it regularly.

my comment is it is stories like this that make the citizens lose confidence in our political system. that's it. tot: we will go ahead now minnesota, raymond on the republican line. turn on your tv. caller: ok. i often vote republican but i am more of an independent. i like to vote for the person i can trust the most. donald trump gave a speech in 17 york and talked about pages long, talked about all the lies that hillary has told. i showed it to my brothers and got in an argument.

i brought up benghazi and they got ugly with me. they thought it was a militaries fault that hillary was awake -- asleep at 3:00 in the morning. at first i heard about the -- the when i came administration try to lock up the e-mails for 75 years but i will be dead and gone by then. earlier sarah, that be000 e-mails are yet to opened? and they won't be open until after the election? i think they should be opened because it may be some sensitive information in that that can our right to be protected properly? host: that's raymond from minnesota. sarah, how is this issue playing out on the campaign through? guest: it's one of donald

trump's top lines against hillary clinton. he likes to joke that russia probably has the e-mails, a lot of people that have hillary clinton's e-mails according to donald trump. , unfortunately for donald trump he keeps giving hillary clinton are not -- enough -- but these aren't in the news cycle. we spent more time looking at aboutonald trump said president obama found a crisis than he did talking about the revelations that were contained in the e-mails. that was to her advantage to keep the pressure on donald trump. andan day more on message make the case against her methodically losing -- using these e-mails. this could become a bigger problem for her. host: how many more e-mails either to be released? guest: the fbi has not made

public the number of e-mails that they have. they said it is tens of thousands. we don't know if it is all 30,000. those are being turned over to the state department. we have e-mails from the ambassador who mara abbott the and her from her chief of staff who was also one of her top national security advisers. and also from cheryl mills. these e-mails this week for example, included hillary clinton but she did not turn them over to the state department. did. next from california. caller: my question is you spoke

about hillary clinton's e-mails no oneve not been -- wants to point their finger at the -- to the public any good by asking the questions they should be asking. how could someone that works in the government have a private server in the dose -- their house and government business on it and even dighe fbi, not into how hillary clinton allowed private lawyers to go through that also had government transactions on it. how do they get to decide what would be given to the fbi?

calling one you are the democratic line. does the revelation of what is in these e-mails impact how you see hillary clinton and how you might vote in november? caller: jober: i do a really good of research. i am a democrat from california. the california ballots on the primary had not even been finished being counted when ap have the store the day before on msnbc when chris matthews said that they will call the election for hillary the day before. that takes away democracy in america. day inote to this they cannot tell me whether my ballot has been counted yet. californiabalance of -- ballots in california,

people's votes have not even been counted. the people's vote, it doesn't even exist anymore. host: response? guest: the ap called the nomination the night before the california primary based on the support of superdelegates, not just on pledged delegates. that did make democrats angry because they thought the race in california was close. that might have affected the outcome, we will never know. this comes into the narrative that is clouding the democratic side, that the system was stacked in favor of hillary clinton because the media was and allt in her victory these arguments that progressives maker they are not

entirely on valid from the e-mails that came out of the dnc hack. everyust makes it worse time we learn about these e-mails because they feed into the overall narrative that the system is rigged in her favor. pennsylvania on the republican line. good morning. this is peter. i am calling in reference to the e-mails. i believe they are making such a big issue. no fbi agent in charge had legal reason to have her indicted. she did admit it that she made mistakes. by clayton were done powell, condoleezza rice. that was a procedure because it was convenient. it was a mistake, but they make it sound like she destroyed the world. none of her e-mails were found

being hacked into. done proper at the time -- improper at the time but it was a mistake. i guarantee this person have on today is a republican and i would be surprised if she was sent there by the republican party. host: that's peter from pennsylvania. guest: there have been comparisons made to condoleezza in: powell's case, his is a commercial e-mail account to send personal e-mails only occasionally. anyonewanted to e-mail outside the system you had to use a personal e-mail account, which was the way technology was at the time.

the state department inspector general did find two e-mails in: pols box that should have been higher level. for hillary clinton, she controlled always records of the time. is a different situation because of the volume of records and she kept outside of the government's custody. it was much more highly sensitive information. we don't have evidence that it was hacked, but we don't have evidence that it wasn't hack. the director said we wouldn't expect to see evidence that it was hacked. the network itself was vulnerable to cyber activity. host: james and ohio on the democratic line. good morning, james i go ahead. caller: a couple of things here. i think the state department or

e-mails is withholding is doing hillary clinton a disservice. republican-led that they don't want to release these e-mails because this becomes a have beenthey maintaining this for several years. they could have released these a long time ago and let people make a decision, that's one thing. then i'm looking at the things that were found in the e-mails, even the ones they said were classified. evidently they want anything that was affecting any security of the federal government. these servers in their home. part of that were people that did have their own private situations through the government. most of that stuff at that time

was being tracked by the phone companies themselves. -- i don't seer it being that big of a deal other than the republican party made it the big of a deal, trying to destroy hillary clinton. they had been working on it for god knows, every -- ever since watergate. from connecticut on the republican line. earliert was referenced but we don't know enough about the relationship between the clinton foundation and the state department to know that there was a crime committed. is that not why three separate fbi field offices recommended an official investigation be open into the clinton foundation? and obama shut that down. isn't there information we don't have that the fbi field agent

saw that meant there was official corruption and criminal activity? from arik, john, connecticut. about the fbi's efforts to look into specific -- specifically the relationship between the state department and the foundation? guest: the justice department looked at it and -- in may last .ear they decided they didn't have enough evidence to move forward. , the fbiier this year looked at it and said it wanted a public corruption case and three field officers were in agreement that a criminal investigation needed to be moving forward. they took it to the headquarters in washington and there was a meeting of high-level justice department officials, in which

it was a heated debate about whether they should take this to the public integrity wing. the nose one out because the case one out. they'd show concern even among justice department officials who some criticized for protecting hillary clinton. even these people wanted to move forward with the investigation of the foundation because there were questions about the legality of the foreign contributions to the charity. host: next caller is from washington, d.c. on the line. caller: thank you for c-span. i was wondering if you could have someone on the program to provide a balanced perspective. it seems to me that the discussion has been a little one-sided and unfounded allegations. host: just to let you know, we

did show the response from hillary clinton's spokesperson and i will read it again for you. he said the right-wing organization behind the attacks on the clinton since the 1990's, how they mischaracterize the documents, hillary clinton never took action as secretary of state on the foundation. there's a reason why there's only one side of the story being told, because hillary clinton has received a of 250onference upwards days. she has been silent on this issue. heart of that is the strategy to prevent it from being legitimized by her addressing it had on. that silence has allowed the republicans to drive the conversation it -- the conversation.

when she does come forward and speak about it, she parses her words so carefully some of the fact checkers say she is not being entirely truthful. that prevents the other side from being told. then more for silence republican driven story here. from next caller is sandy lexington, kentucky on the republican line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. the problem here is not republican or democrat. it should be american problem , notillary like to line just about the servers, she lied about benghazi, she has been lying hurt career. -- her entire career. do we want someone with her character is president? i cannot believe the american people, some of them are even considering her.

putthe same people that obama in there twice are going to be the same people that will elect hillary clinton, i'm afraid. host: just to let our viewers know, we did have a segment in ramey davisited special counsel to bill clinton to come on washington journal and speak about this very issue. you can watch that on c-span.org if you missed it. we are talking to serve westwood, and investigative reporter. next up angus. good morning. it isn't to me about all the seamount that's going on.

i should have sense enough not to put e-mail on a line that i think anybody can tap into. but yet hillary with the e-mail. how about the people she was eating -- involved with? doug to think they should be response about it too? angus froms maryland. sarah, tell us about the rules and regulations around the use of a private server. was that allowed undersea department really -- regulations? guest: it was not allowed under those regulations. the inspector general went back and looked at this closely. because there were questions that were out there because hillary clinton said it was permitted under rules and the inspector general looked at this is explicitly not allowed by state department

policy. it wasn't against the law. it was against the interagency law -- rules about how they are supposed to conduct themselves. employees have been disciplined under hillary clinton. criminalid not break law. that is the distinction that has prevented her from being indicted when the justice department looked at this but has had her be reprimanded by the state department. host: greg on the independent line from jacksonville, florida. go ahead. caller: good morning. i am a 37 year watcher c-span. it seems i'm mocking -- watching fox news this morning. there doesn't seem like there's any objectivity. clinton was the secretary of state. the whole operation and benghazi was a cia operation that hasn't

been very -- covered very well by the news media. clintonsd thing is the have been in the news cycle over the last 35 years. still no criminal charges, no other charges have been brought down then the administrative impeachment of the president which he was tried in the house and senate and was acquitted. goingost scenario that is on again with the news media particular wanted to be right , itt this all e-mail saying wing -- ring -- white right-wing driven. ihave been watching since 279. i am just very surprised. thank you for taking my call. issue this is a central

is of her candidacy for president. when you are running for thing you sayry and do comes over a microscope and this is a pretty big one. classified information was mishandled. fbi has cleared her for no wrongdoing. these allegation that clinton donorsion don't know -- were afforded special access to her agency under her leadership is relevant to voter answers -- voters because this is the way we can likely expect her administration to be conducted. you have to take a look at this and in the context of are we going to put this person in the white house and are we going to persist? there was no illegal activity that took place but you have to question the ethical realities of what happened. time for one last caller, sandra from grapevine, texas.

guest: caller: i would like to say to the young lady that's talking, i 30 with the gentleman -- i agree with the gentleman where this seems to be like another level witchhunt from fox news. makes it any more important than the 5000 men and men who were lost -- and women who are lost? host: our guest is fair westwood. guest: i would say that the benghazi situation has been played pretty hard by republicans to the point where i don't think it is much of an issue for her anymore with the conclusion of the investigation.

that's not something that you hear talk about anymore. but the other situation where there are still loose and -- ends, you can expect to hear more on them. host: thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. host: next you will talk to author ofen third-party matters. later we will have open phone lines. we will be right back. >> book tv on c-span 2, 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors every weekend. here features from this weekend. today at 7 p.m. eastern the justicecourt and chief warren burger is the focus of lecturer linda greenhouse's book, the burger court and the rise of the judicial right pitch she speaks here in washington

dc. at 10:00 p.m. eastern afterwords she argues with the u.s. is entering into two countries, which she calls coastal america and flyover america in her book flyover nation. you cannot run the country of never been to. >> it seems like in so many ways that not just so much it people and flyover nation, you have this yanking back and fourth, the right and left who are pulling in one direction or to wer and it goes back need you to support this particular issue. but that divide is kind of scary. >> sunday at 7 p.m. eastern journalists monique morris looks at how some school policies are having a negative impact on the lives of black female students.

of blacknalization girls in school pitch he argues that schools and other institutions that are supposed to help are the places that are criminalizing black girls. 02 book tv.org for the complete we can schedule. -- go to book tv.org. makes itn radio at easy to check on election wherever you are. .t is free to download get audio coverage and up-to-the-minute schedule information for c-span radio and television plus podcast times for a popular public affairs, book and history programs. stay up-to-date on all the election coverage. c-span's radio app means you always have c-span on the go. >> washington journal continues. host: our guest is donald green, the author of third-party matters, politics, president and third parties in american history. he is oppressor -- professor of american history.

he is joining us from tampa. good morning, donna. guest: good morning. it's good to be back. host: tell us a little bit about the role third parties have played an american presidential elections. starting from the top there's been 103rd parties since the 1830's. 10% have played i think a significant role. two parties have changed the outcome to an election, there have been parties that have brought issues to the table that were taken up by the major parties as had an impact on the history of the united states. the antislavery movement of the 1840's and 50's led to the founding of the republican party. course, the civil war. ralph nader, change the elections outcome in florida and

that brought george bush and to power rather than al gore. without nader, al gore would have been the president. but had played a role, there has played a lot more of them that have not played a role third for example, in 1980 john anderson got about 7% of the vote which was good but he didn't bring any issues to the table that changed anything. he didn't change it out, the election. does the outcome of the election. host: why has the third party struggle to gain a toehold here? we are used to the two-party system. we have had a two-party system since the founding. the republicans and the federalists and the whigs and the democrats. now the democrats and republicans.

a two-partyd toward system. the other thing is that people may support a third-party during the election, then it comes time to the final time to vote and they feel if they vote for their third-party they will throw away the vote. the other aspect is very often a major party co-opt and issue. if they see and issue that is resonating with americans, they might've dumped it as their own. it feeds into the narrative of two parties just going on and on. host: we are talking with donald green. we will let our viewers know that they can call us and join the conversation as well. a special line for this segment if you are voting for a third-party you can call us at .02-202-748-8000 748-8001.s are 202-

here is a bit of the history of two -- third parties from usa today. thurmondovernor strom they received 2.4% of the votes, receivedllace in 1968 13.6% of the vote. those were segregationist parties and those two years. those modelsge of is -- the highest percentage of those funds was ross perot being given 18.9% remote. how did that election how might that have look different if ross perot had not receive such a high number of votes? not change the outcome of the election. some people claiming her was. he might have hurt george bush and -- in a couple of western state. by at leastnton won

100 electoral votes. even if they did occur it did not change the outcome. the thing about ross perot is that in the spring of 1992, shortly after he announced on the larry king show, he was ahead in the polls, he was ahead of president bush and ahead of bill clinton. he was about 40% in the polls. it had a lot of support. it was an example of a candidate who could have won the election, if he would have continued to be ahead he might have become .resident people would not have deserted him and plus the fact that he was a billionaire. he dropped out for various reasons. he comes back in and he as at seven percent than he purchase of faith in the debates and does very well. he is up to almost 20%.

it didn't change anything. what is interesting is that his big issues were the mess in debt.gton and the rio $4 trillion and it had -- we owed for train dollars and it had tripled. when reagan came in in 1980 our $970 billion. when reagan and bush left it was 4 trillion. that was a big issue back then. of course now it is 20 trillion. it looks quaint back then but it was a major issue in 1992. we would love to be down to 4 trillion right now. let's get to our phone calls, from norfolk, virginia, mark is on the line. you say you will vote for third party? caller: i'm going to vote green

able to make are it on the ballot in virginia. if not i'm comfortable switching ,o the the libertarian party which has 2-2-term governor's who are successful in their own right. just. green, i would proffer that maybe he missed one main reason that the third-party doesn't get any traction. the reason is because most people who are in the journalistic field or the media don't even acknowledge that there are other people running besides the two parties. put their finger on the scales by saying that they have no chance. by not mentioning other americans who are putting their life on hold, families at risk to do the patriotic thing to run for president i think they should be -- i think they

should be mentioned in a recent area when you're talking about the race. host: donald graham? guest: i don't know what comes first, the chicken or the a. i guess -- the egg. there's a lot of attention to the major parties because that is where the law's supporters. in the last few weeks i have seen a lot of plays for jill stein and gary johnson on television. not as much as donald trump of course. and hillary. they have gotten attention in the media. i think there is interest there. -- i'm nott people sure people realize how extreme the libertarians and the green party are. i saw greer johnson on the other night on c-span -- gary johnson. if you watched him he seems like a reasonable person. platform, he is

much more extreme than he appears to be. you sort of stole my cheese there. interview gary johnson. you guys can watch first off and see what he says. guest: we think that by being in the presidential media, to former republican governors reelected in heavily democratic states, we think if we are in the presidential debate anything is possible. we do believe that is a very , looking at the western states, you could look at utah, wyoming, nevada, bill weldhe dakotas would have a list of those himself where we might actually win outright. the idea is to win outright.

i know that sounds crazy but this is a crazy election cycle. two weeks ago where the projected audience for the first presidential debate is going to be exceeding that of the super bowl. there's no way we have chance of winning if we are not in that game. many the presidential debate. is there any chance of a third party winning outright on this election or influencing the out, the election? guest: i don't think there's a chance of winning. from what i can see. he is at 10% and jill stein is at 5%. there is another candidate who popped out of the cake recently, as in mcmullen mcmullen, former

director of the cia and the republican on some house committees, a policymaker. he could take votes away from donald trump i think. he is a mormon and is popular in new job. he could take you to away from donald trump. he could affect the outcome to an election. i have a feeling there might be some money behind him and he will get a lot more coverage in the next few weeks. we still have three months to go in this election so anything can happen. i think he could have an impact and he could get enough votes. there might be people who don't want to vote for donald trump, they don't want to vote for hillary clinton, so he might be an alternative that would be acceptable here at he seems like a responsible individual. host: fayetteville, north carolina, brian is on the line. brian, go ahead. vote for am going to hillary clinton. i wanted to vote for jill stein

because i like her platform, and she has no chance of winning. voting for her could be a vote that would give donald trump the victory. about nader scoring the election. there were also other factors. the supreme court jumped into the election and decided it. we have to look at the big picture also. the problem is with the democratic and republican party, they are both court -- both corporate owned. most people realize that. we also need to end the 50% threshold. them in on the debates. let's eliminate the 50% threshold so we can have the representation. the republican and democratic parties are not representing the

american people. host: donald graham, how important are the televised debates to the outcome of the presidential election? they are very important. that has ross perot from 7% to 19%. he did very well and a debate. this gentleman has a good idea about allowing more people in the debate. i don't think you want 15 or 20 like the republican primaries but to have four or five specials -- debating on the stage would be a good idea. host: where do you put the cut off? i guess the 50% threshold -- threshold-t -- host: with four or five people then jill stein and gary johnson could be in the debate. i see no harm in having poor people on the stage.

jill stein wants to cut the defense budget by 50%. gary johnson wants to legalize drugs. showid on your interview that he okayed marijuana but if you look at his platform he says drugs so it sounds broader than that. he wants no restrictions on guns . buying a gun under gary johnson's presidency would be like going in and buying a bagel. you pay for it and you go home. aspects aboutof agendas would not be good for americans. california is up next. mark, which party are you voting for the selection? caller: i don't know yet.

party other than the two major parties at this point is the only way we will see change. the primary problem everybody is overlooking. i managed to do this in my life, and i am just trying to get paid for my time in the service, but the lack of efficacy, the lack of people to have integrity, both parties have sold out. way you will get changes look to a third party. to allt quick point this, last person who really had a chance to do that was ross perot. if everybody goes back and looks and remembers, he quit because he said they threatened my family. that is how insidious it has gotten and that's how little you should trust these two parties. in the 1980's we had 30% of the

homeless population was veterans, now it is 40%. yet they say the honor us? how does that honor anybody? that's mark from california. let's hear from another caller, joanne from indiana. on theis also calling line of for those planning to vote for third party. on supporting jill stein. for bernie sanders. i saw how dirty that the media and the republicans and the democrats were trying to keep him from being seen and heard. if you cannot go on and run himself because of the pledge joiningmade at the time and running with them.

thinksng with the one he will follow his agenda in net is jill sign. -- jill stein. host: do you were about a vote like that will become a vote for donald trump? caller: my vote is what counts. where it goes and how it is counted is what is matter to me. is the sum ofcted the country. i want my vote to be counted as the way it should be counted. for mrs. clinton. i watched her for the last 40 years. i am not for mr. trump. he is part of the 1% and part of the problem. i cannot fall for either one of them in good conscious conscience. no, my vote for jill stein

will cause the parties to elect mr. trump. i don't know who it will elect, that it was know not voted on mrs. clinton or mr. trump. that's what i would like the record to show. i have been voting ever since i was 18 and unfortunately the first two votes i did was mr. nixon and i will never make a mistake again. i have always been on top of all and i'mical candidates, sorry, but clinton doesn't make it and mr. trump definitely does not make it. i don't think the host: people in america are blind. that's joanna from indiana. suggesthe seemed to that bernie sanders didn't get the attention he deserved but he

was in the news all the time and got a lot of attention. he was an exciting candidate. he got somewhere around 40% of the float. -- of the vote. hillary was 52 in the democratic primary. he came close and had every opportunity to endorse jill stein but he has not done it. i think he feels that if hillary wins he can play a role. that he can play a role in the senate and push some of his platforms through congress. host: samuel from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. what is your thought this morning? let us not underestimate the power of social media. as a write inte asdidate, i am on facebook

samuel l. hurt. i will be the next president of the unitedt -- of states. i am happy. who will notthose be voting for hillary or donald trump. host: what is your platform samuel? onler: my platform is posted facebook. i am a conservative. i believe in equal rights for everybody. i am a viable alternative. the major news media networks will give me any coverage. we all know why that they are not going to give me the proper respect i need because they want this country to remain in the hands of the status while your and im a viable candidate will be the next president of the united states, and the

election will be contested election. there will possibly be a large insortium of people washington dc the night before the election. i will be the next president of the united states, and i look forward into -- to serving this nation honorably. website did show your on air for our viewers to see. i'll bring, your thoughts? guest: he raises the issue of social media and write in spirit -- right in. gary johnson got up play trying to get on the ballot. i think he is on in two states. there are only 15 states remaining residential and has not passed. he can be maybe on 15 or 20 ballots.

they will go to the courts. he did emphasize social media and the power of right in's. we will see if that has any impact after the election. i guess it would be the first time you use social media to get ins. wr --ite virginia, can you are on the air. did you: earlier this morning? yes i did. first time ever calling in. we are supposed to only have one call per show. do try again another day. next up is the rain from syracuse, new york also calling on the third-party line. go ahead. know thehat i want to democratic and republican party,

they are saying washington is not doing its job. the only reason they are not doing their job is at the republicans since president they was in operated, decided not to work with him on any issue. they are blaming everything on president obama which i think is not fair. how do they expect him to get anything done if they are not working with him? host: any thoughts? guest: she has an interesting point. take the example of the supreme court nominee, merit garland. the job of the congress is to have hearings and disapproved or approve what they have done anything. this is unprecedented. an example of what this lady is saying. many people in congress will not

cooperate with the president. this is a primary example, an obvious example of it. to remind our viewers of our call in policy. it is once every 30 days for a phone call into washington journal. here is some more information on evan mcmullen's. he missed more than two dozen filing deadlines to get on the ballot. issaid this week that there an opportunity to get his name on the ballot in every state. a former cia officer and conference chief policy director. he says he will not be limited to a right in option for effective voters. do you see something different about this year? it has been an unusual election

cycle? third-partyar candidates can gather the attention and support of the american people? guest: frankly, i don't know yet. i think that gary johnson and jill stein -- i think people are aware of them. they are in people's minds and mcmullen has come out of nowhere. he has attacked donald trump. he made a statement the other night that he thinks donald trump is more of a threat to national security than isis area --. a third party could play a role in this election. after it isow until over and you look at the numbers. donald in cooksville, tennessee calling on the third-party line. caller: good morning.

let's see if the host can guest -- guess -- i have one question and then i will hang up. would you consider a lack of clarity of the libertarian party as far as a platform doesn't let it get -- from a charismatic leader? seeme get off and i will go your answer. thank you for your time. host: that was donald from tennessee. i think kerry johnson is a reasonable candidate. he was the government -- governor of new mexico twice and while it -- a very well spoken. there is a difference between what he says on television and if you look at the platform. he talked about on the interview , he talked about

reforming social security. the platform -- they want to eliminate social security. there will be no gun control. about no marijuana on the interview but in the platform they say that drugs are ok. not being upfront with what he really wants. after reading his platform, i get the feeling he wants to go back to the 19th century when all the government did was deliver the mail. he wants to get the government out of health care, retirement accounts, out of almost everything, he wants to cut back on defense. he would honor our commitments overseas, but if you look at his platform he wants no entangling alliances. that something george washington advocated when he left office. there's a big difference between

what he says on tv and his platform and his platform is extreme in my opinion. host: there is still time to get their phone calls in with donna green. if you are planning to a 202-748-8000202- we will hear now from sheila calling. sheila plans to vote for a third party. go ahead. caller: hello? can you hear me? i will definitely vote for jill stein. she was on your program on july 15 when a man asked her a question. she says that the public honors the airwaves and president obama should insist that the fcc change the rules so that the public has access to candidates and they get free airtime. i want the public to be aware that she will be on cnn at 9:00

on this wednesday, august 17th for a town hall meeting. i think she has a good chance in ofs election if they get rid the gerrymandering and the electoral college, which is going to give clinton the vote. i think this is totally unfair. i'm mad at bernie for not standing his ground, going all the way, and bringing up these points so he could have been the nominee. haveld like jill stein to nina turner as her running mate. host: all right. jilln also interviewed stein last week. she is again the green party presidential candidate. she talked about the states where she expects to be on the ballot. you can have a listen at what she said. [video clip] is an fewer party than half the states. what will that look like this election year? how many states do you expect to be on the ballot.

>> between 48 and 50. the early numbers reflected the deadline of the petition process. those numbers are going up rapidly. we also have active ongoing cases in court. we expect to be on the ballot voter, or nearly every voter. i think the realistic vote is to stand up and build. however far we get, we are that much farther ahead for the down ballot races and the ongoing fight for america and the world that works -- and a world that works for all of us. from our next caller comes south carolina. will is on the line. caller: good morning. how are you chuckle and really enjoying this. i'm loving all the people supporting the third party, as i am i.

i want to make a point to the author there. i think he felt to make a point raking of the system by the two parties, who have the fors set up to make it hard third parties to gain ballot access in most cases. also there is a situation where taxpayers are actually subsidizing those two parties, which are essentially privately that lowerzations aemselves to give us the voice, supposedly, on occasion. i would love to see all this independent support work towards getting us more independent voices in congress. during the and angus king -- bothe and angus king are independent voices in the senate, if we could have more in , i think we could gain

some. we have a facebook community that i started called "political seeking -- host: we will leave it there. donald green, your thoughts? guest: one of the main obstacles for third party, and this gentleman touched on it, is getting on the ballot. in the old days, candidates would have a representative at the polling station with tickets. you walked in and took the ticket of that candidate dropped in the box. starting in the 1880's, they started which is called the australian ballot, an official ballot. then, the question became who chuckle everyllot state has different rules and

regulations. cut of states, different numbers in signatures you need -- some states it might be 500,000 -- so, a third-party has to hire lawyers to study the rules. sometimes the rules are not that clear. it would be nice if there was some uniform system for getting on the ballot, but at this point, there isn't. host: the caller brought up a point about congressional elections. we focus so much on the congressional race. what role do they play in the house and senate? 1800s, thehe late greenback party and the populists had a lot of power in some of the midwest states. they were parties of workers and farmers. in those states, a lot of those caught in the state

legislator. they had some power. there was also party in the 1850's called the american party, and anti-immigrant and anti-catholic party. a lot of representatives from that party were in the legislators in the northeast -- new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, and states like that. one of the problems now is gerrymandering. these weird shaped districts which give a particular .andidate a lock that is a reason why so many republicans have a lock on the house of representatives. there is a chance the democrats could pick up the senate, but it is unlikely in the house because of gerrymandering. i've read some statistics the other day that republicans get less than 40% of the popular vote but they have control of the house of representatives. that is because of

gerrymandering. some of these districts, they look like a blood vessel, they go on and on and on. it has given them control of the house of representatives. host: the next caller is john calling on the third-party line. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call this morning. good morning. i just have a question because i am planning on voting third-party jill stein, but am also very much of the never trump perspiration. i'm fromso far -- maine, it is a pretty democratic states. our leadership is republican, i'm not sure how things will play out what we get closer to elections. if trump is strong, i will vote for hillary because i think i can sleep better

at night without trump. if hillary has a strong lead, i will vote third party. i don't know for a lot of people have that strategy, but i'm wondering, is it a good strategy check of the pros and cons of what i plan on doing -- good strategy? the pros and cons of what i plan on doing. guest: if you are the only one, ok. if a lot of people think the way you are, if hillary is in the lead, and a lot of people think the way are, and as a group, you vote for joe stein, it is possible you cause hillary the lead. you might outsmart yourself. keep that in mind. recentere is some polling from "the wall street journal" showing the impact of .he third-party candidate in a two-way race, hillary clinton would receive 46% of the

vote, donald trump would receive 41% of the electorate would be undecided. however, in a three party raise, hillary clinton's lead would reduce to 39%, donald trump at the angela stein at 6% of electorate. hillaryee-way matchup, clinton sees a decline in support and donald trump receives a decline, but not one that is quite so large. guest: i'm surprised. i saw something similar to that. i had assumed that gary johnston would hurt donald trump more than hillary, but he seems to hurt hillary more than trump. is johne next caller from connecticut, calling on the line for those who plan to vote for one of the two major parties. why is that, john?

caller: yes. i do plan on voting for mr. trump. however, there is a sour taste in my mouth. what i would like to talk about is a third-party that you just mentioned, ross perot. i got caught up with him and i really believed what he was saying. it just got to be -- and i voted , which wasin in 1996 ok by me because i really was going to vote for clinton that year. i would like to go and talk about third parties aside. you know, there were no parties when george washington ran. i would like to know -- i thought that was great. they should have never amended the constitution and changed it. what you would do is you would not pick a vice president, you would run for president, and the number two guy would come in.

i think that added to checks and balances. i would like to hear your answer on that. thank you very much for taking my call. well, there is nothing the constitution about political parties. the founders were opposed to political parties. they evolved because there were different ideas about how to govern. believed in as strong central government and somebody, ild he guess the leader of that faction. jefferson believed in a weak central government. these individuals led to the formation of the early political parties. announced onet day. it's sort of evolved. that is the way it has been ever

since. people sort of surround those parties and pick the party that suits their belief. one of the things that the founders wanted was the idea of factions. if an issue came up, they wanted people to choose sides -- do we want to get into a war in europe, for example. there would be a debate, we auld decide, there would be vote, something would happen, and the two factions would disappear. then, another issue would come up. two factions would come into play, one against another. they would decide. this is how the early founders wanted the country to proceed. it did not work out that way. breadfelt that party politics -- ambition, politics.

they did not want that. they felt it would be detrimental to the future of the country. that is the way it evolved, and we're still living with that 200 years later. host: we have time for a few more callers in this segment. next is brant from tennessee. what are your thoughts this morning? with the guest please the two ballot access. i remember mr. nader complaining he cannot get on the ballot in all 50 states. to both of the alternate parties have ballot access in all 50 states? i'm here in tennessee. it does not matter where i cast my vote. as a republican friend says, it is better to vote for the devil you know than the devil you don't. johnston,hink gary from what i read in the papers, he is on the ballot in all 50

states. jill stein is on the ballot in all 50 states and working on getting access and the rest. ballot inen is on the two states as of this weekend. i think you tell the final date is tomorrow to get on the ballot. he plans to challenge some states in courts, he plans right ends, he says there are -- right ins, he says there are other means to get on the ballot. host: our last caller for this f fromt will be jef california. good morning. caller: howdy. host: how are you?

caller: just fine. mr. green, i think you may have something wrong and may have just quoted the libertarian view on guns. that is an article -- theyto you guys think that rifles can all be turned automatic and pistols are the same. another thing i differ with you on is you just assumed that gerrymandering always helps republicans, and so, must be done by them. i live in california, and the gerrymandering helps democrats. my vote counts for nothing. i was a republican until they voted for trump. host: final words? guest: i will give you that one on gerrymandering in california. what was he other question? host: he asked about the

platform for gary johnson on guns. platform.ead his they are against any kind of gun control. you could buy any gun you wanted. no registration. no background check, none of that stuff. it is like buying anything else, a loaf of bread, or something. host: all right. donald green is the author of, "third-party matters." next, we will be taking more of your phone calls and your tweets. we will be opening of the phone lines and chatting with jeff mason about president shall vacations. c-span's "newsmakers" interviewed gary johnson this week. the for a will air tomorrow. he was asked if he agrees with mr. trump that president obama

is the founder of isis as well as how he would deal with the isis threat. [video clip] >> do you agree or disagree with donald trump when he calls president obama the founder of isis, and ties hilary into that, calling current mvp. >> unintentional. no, they did not support isis, but the result has been the unintended consequence of that happened. it was not just obama and clinton. it was going into iraq, getting rid of saddam hussein, which was the check when it came to iran. "in regime change -- we get involved in regime change, and have these unattended consequences. >> one quick follow-up. obviously going back in time there are mistakes we could look

would not be we facing this problem with that problem what we are facing is -- problem. is this -- facing what is your plan? do you think it requires a us-led plan to combat the threat of isis and defeated? -- defeat it? >> how about congress getting involved in having a national debate on how to move forward? you could look at it as sand through an hourglass. they are regionally contained. you pointed out there was terrorist action -- were terrorist actions carried out in this country that were isis inspired. we se will see the isis threat through to its conclusion. there was a poll among active

military personnel on whom they supported for president of the united states. myself and bill weld were on top of that poll with trump seconded and clinton third. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are opening up the phone lines to you for the rest of the show this morning. what is on your mind or your thoughts on the topics and issues of the day? here are the lines to call. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. .ndependents, (202) 745-8002 you can also send us a tweet, @cspanwj. we are also on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. here are a few headlines for you this morning. hill" newspaper, "hacker

dems personal info on donors." host: it included the name, social security numbers, as well as other information of big-ticket donors. the documents were released to only part of the first section. the book will be released on wikileaks. sent tothe documents cthe hill" center around a dcc fundraising dinner

featuring obama, pelosi, and chairman then brave jean -- ben .ay lujan also, hillary clinton released her tax records yesterday. earned grossusband adjusted income of $10.6 million $3.6 million in federal income taxes, according to her tax return. the income placed the clintons well within the top .1% of earners, based on data for the 2015 year. the couple paid an effective tax rate of 34.2% in 2015 and donated i'd .8% of their adjusted gross income to

charity, including a $1 million gift to the clinton family foundation. let's get started with kay calling from pennsylvania. good morning to you. about: yeah, i'm calling donald trump. bankrupt man that went seven times. if you went bankrupt seven times, how do we know he will not bankrupt the united states. he says he will make america great again. how about the isis think he said was a joke? if he puts his finger on the atomic bomb and says that is a joke? host: ok. here's a story from "the washington post," with the , who soughtrump obama's records, won't release his own."

host: mary from to try, michigan is on the democratic line. caller: yes, i'm calling in about donald trump. a racist, pure and simple. when he went after the first black president of the united all ofand called him

put the idea in my mind that he is going against all black americans. i would not for for donald trump under any circumstance. thank you very much. is salnext up hi calling from baltimore, maryland. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to speak a bit about all ,f this political posturing talking about trump, anytime people want to talk about something bad. t andw trump is a bigo sexist. one thing i do know, donald trump, his policies we don't know, he is kind of foolish, but twice elect george bush who is the epitome of spoiled

rich kid, underachiever. the whole isis thing, isis is just a word. isis is a bunch of trash. clinton and obama and bush before them created isis with their propping up and continuing support of regimes like saudi arabia and israel, who are the major players in the destabilizing of the middle east. it is the arabian peninsula, not saudi arabia. host: i think we hear your point . we will leave it there. we will move on to chris from halifax, massachusetts. go ahead. myler: thank you for taking call this morning. i just want to call in and talk i was watching the last segment about third parties. i would say that donald trump

really is a third-party candidate, even though he is on .he republican ballot he has essentially been rejected republican establishment. his platforms, they are very independent. he is against foreign trade, for a taxes, against immigration, and these kinds of things. host: who then do you plan to support in november? caller: believe the or not, i'm not going to vote. that is a different story, believe it or not. if i had to vote, even though i live in the democratic state of massachusetts, i would folks for trump. i don't think the country can afford another four years of a democratic administration. host: next up from baltimore city, maryland, bruce is on the line. what you have to say this morning. caller: good morning.

i'm listening to some of these collars and it's unfortunate how ill-informed they are. i'm not just voting for donald trump because i'm voting against hillary clinton because she is manipulative, and talk about temperamental problems. all the illegal immigrants and what just have the and with the justice department, which i refer to as the in justice department -- could there be problems in the police department? possibly. don't cut me off. i voted for barack obama in 2008. i used to be a progressive. now, i'm an independent progressive.

listen carefully. his administration and the justice department are being sensual because they did not get the outcome they wanted with these six police officers, when, in fact, marilyn mosley is .otally incompetent and a bigot she is supposedly supposed to represent all the baltimore, not just people of color. host: let's move on to sergio of new york. good morning. myler: thank you for taking call. it's interesting you took my call on the heels of the last caller. point. of proves my the fox news republican party built a certain segment of our , regardless of evidence, fact, data, no matter what it is that can be proven to be true, they refused to a

knowledge that because it goes against what they believe, feel, think. i think that is a very dangerous thing for our democracy. we have a group of people walking around saying the elections are rigged because we don't get what we won. the government is corrupt because we don't get what we want. it really is, i think, a real assault on our democracy when we have people walking around like this that can never be swayed by reality. i guess i have to say that. you. . -- you hear it. .rump is echoing this when does common knowledge and common decency come back to our political process? i think it is really dangerous, the path they are take us down. host: all right.

let's take another caller. that will be lois from manchester township. i'm sorry, your state is cut off, where are you from -- oh, new jersey. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm a democrat. i did not always vote strictly to party lines. but i don't understand is why the democrats are so angry these days. they seem to have tunnel vision. even the young, the young kids in college, they pick and choose . this is not right. this is why like c-span. you have different colors and different opinions. that is the way it should be. if you want to have an open mind , you have to hear all sides of the story. thank you. host: all right. that is lois. we are going to hear now from

jeff mason of reuters. is on martha's vineyard with president obama, following him. he is a white house correspondent. unfortunately, i cannot see any scenery behind you. he is joining us from skype. guest: sorry about the scenery in the background. unfortunate, that is my curtain. host: i was hoping for a lovely lake scene. tell us a little bit about what you are doing on martha's vineyard, and more portly, why the president repeatedly vacations their? guest: the president has come here nearly every year since he came into office. he has chosen martha's vineyard for a variety of reasons. one, it is an island that is fairly easy for the secret

service to secure. two, it has a lot of golf courses and he likes to play golf. three, it is a place where celebrity is respected. i mean that by saying the locals comeand the tourists who pay respect to the public figures without going over board. host: you wrote recently for writers about how presidential vacations reflect the nature of the present themselves. his vacation plans compare to others? presidenty previous have had properties of their own to go back to for vacation. you saw george w. bush, for example, going to his ranch in crawford, texas and spending many weeks there every summer.

you had his father going to the family compound in maine. going back further, you have the reagans going to the ranch in california. you had john f. kennedy going to the family compound in massachusetts. it is interesting. you compare that with presidents like president obama and president clinton, when he was in the office in the 1990's, who did not have properties of their own to go to. they would choose destinations to go to like martha's vineyard. clintons, when he was in office, did not own any property until the end of his time in office, when they thought -- washt in new york, which a residency, not a property. host: in the event that hillary

clinton would win the presidency, which she change her vacation plans at all? guest: it is hard to say because it is sort of speculation. folks that i talked to said they think she would come back here. in the interim period since she left office and hillary clinton left her spot as first lady lady, they have vacationed in many other places. they have reportedly given up their places to pulling. they may choose places based on where it is most politically advantageous to go. that said, they do have a presence on the island. in fact, she is expected to be are in the coming weeks for fundraiser herself, and may or may not take some down time. host: what about donald trump?

would you follow him if he becomes president? guest: the press corps would follow whoever becomes president just like we do with president obama. when i was writing that piece, i reached out to his spokesperson to ask where he likes to vacation, and her response was, mr. trump likes to work. he does not appear to be someone who likes to spend a lot of time on vacation, but if he did, he falls in the camp of someone who owns a lot of properties himself. host: think you very much for joining us. guest: my pleasure. host: here is a story on breitbart.com that shows more americans want to vacation with .rump than hillary clinton

the story says that 39% of americans would like to go on vacation with donald trump while 33% picked clinton. 48% of men said they would trump and 43%with of women said they would rather travel with clinton. according to the results, men cited entertainment for wanting to travel with trump. millennials said they would go on vacation with the billionaire out of curiosity. we are opening up the phone calls for your thoughts on the issues of the day. charlie is the next caller on the independent line. go ahead. caller: thank you, c-span. been calling hillary --

, andeals, robs people damages people's lives. we have to call him exactly what he is. media refersay the to him as itt. host: next up is judy from indianapolis. go ahead. caller: hello? host: you were on the air. caller: i just wanted to talk about the economy. republicans always say they are living under obama policies. we are actually -- the majority of this country is living under republican policy. the majority of the governors, the legislators, the legislation in washington, d.c. the republicans are the ones who have gotten most of the policies through.

any policies that the democrats not have been blocked or even brought up to the floor for discussion or vote. i think the republicans ought to the people who live in appellation -- alachia are governed by republicans, down south, they are governed by republicans. i don't understand why republicans get on air and say no one wants to live anymore under obama rules -- obama's rules when we are actually living under republican policy. hillary clinton is not a person of fluff and softness. she is a person of deep love and appreciation of people. raised, she was

.ot raised as a princess she had to survive as a child. she passed those skills of survival on to her daughter. hillary is not about a lot of fluff. she is about taking incoming getting in, and getting things done. that is what i like about her. i think the republicans are very afraid of her because she knows how to get done. host: ok. here is the front page of the erie times news." they have a story with the issuene that "economy key for trump supporters."

host: we are take your phone calls for the remainder of the morning. nevada is on the line. go ahead. caller: it is amazing to me how donald trump can move the conversation forward. we saw the hoopla about putin the the whole thing -- e-mails, can you dig into hillary's e-mails, and that kind of stuff. i went online and started researching and he has a lot of ties to ukraine and the whole election that was going to 's pen with putin

ick for ukraine and. suddenly, they took off weaponize and ukrainian resistance as an element of their platform. i started thinking, was that putinort of proof to that perhaps they did have some power. and, the new cycle kept going so it is buried under another wave of something outrageous he said. connections tort russia are not made up. you can go online and see them. no one is looking into this. his line has been disconnected here you can -- disconnected. that is really suspicious to me. host: here are a few other the headlines for you this morning.

from reuters, "u.s. declares a zika public health emergency in puerto rico." host: in addition, "the new york times" has a story about the u.s. saying a strike killed and

isis leader in afghanistan. "the leader of the islamic state branch that operates in afghanistan and pakistan was killed in an american airstrike on july 26 in eastern afghanistan, the pentagon said on friday." hillary clinton gave a speech on the economy in michigan this week. here is a little bit of what she had to say on trade policy. [video clip] >> it is true that too often passed trade deals have been sold to the american people with rosy scenarios that did not pan out. hollowromises now ring among many communities across michigan and our country that have seen factories closed and jobs disappear.

too many companies lobby for trade deals so they could sell products abroad. then, they instead moved abroad and sold back into the united states. it is also true that china and meder countries have ga the system for too long. home thats at would make us more competitive have been completely blocked in congress. american workers and communities have paid the price. the answer is not to rant and rave or cut ourselves off from the world -- that would kill ethan more jobs -- the answer is to make trade work for us and not against us. to every worker in michigan and across america is this. i will stop any trade deal that

killed jobs and holds down wages, including the transpacific partnership. [applause] >> i oppose it now, i will oppose it after the election and i will oppose it as president. host: we are taking your phone the issues of the day. let's turn now to gray from indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. i have three statements. one is an apology to hillary and also donald trump because i can guarantee they will not apologize. the electoral vote, the popular vote does not count. electoral votes override.

i will abolish electoral votes so that people can actually speak. appreciate it. have a good day. god bless you. host: our next caller is surely on the democratic line. go ahead. you -- shirley, you are on the air. caller: yes. i want to comment about electoral votes too. i think they are terrible. it takes away our right to vote, so to speak. we have a right to vote, but they don't matter, they don't count anyway. i wish they would have a national election day and stop politicking for a year and a half before spending all that money. with what extent, we could have

paid off our national debt. registered democrat but i would not vote for hillary clinton to be a dog catcher. i think she is crooked, she lies, and over the years that her and bill clinton have been in washington, i have seen this country deteriorate, and i attribute a lot of it to them. them.k it is money behind host: let's turn now to donald trump on the campaign trail. he spoke in michigan recently. [video clip] >> tax of the vacation will be a major feature of the plan. [applause] current tax code is so burdensome and so complex that

a yeare 9 billion hours in tax code compliance. our plan will reduce the current number of brackets from seven to three and to magically streamline the process. [applause] we will work with house republicans on this plan, using the same brackets that they have proposed. 12%, twice 5%, and 33%. for many american workers, the tax rate will be zero. times," "the new york bruce bartlett wrote this op-ed. he was an advisor in the ronald reagan and bush administrations.

he wrote, "tax rates were very high when reagan proposed cutting them, much higher than today. from thetax rates world war ii era had been only by john f. kennedy. the rate above 50% were not bringing in much revenue because wealthy people were likely to invest in tax shelters. playede te reagan tax cut .nly a secondary role there is far more evidence in the last 35 years that tax increases to more to stimulate growth than tax cuts." let's go to california, john is on the line. good morning to you. caller: good morning.

first of all, i would like to congratulate c-span for their coverage of the conventions. hearing the entire speeches is so important over the tax bite. i think that was really a good thing for c-span. on donald trump, i think he is following president obama who is a great orator, young, handsome. trump is bombastic and older. the messenger is different. if you look at his message over all, especially on taxes, his tax plan is not ronald reagan's plan, it is paul ryan's plan, and it is brilliant. you reduce taxes on the middle class, you eliminate the death tax. this is all good for the middle class. tax system ised all his. this is not ronald reagan's, it

is because ryan's tax plan, and it is solid, brilliant. i would like the candidates to look at their actions. heis a great oratory, but pays ransom. donald trump is not a great oratory, but he is a decent guy. host: robert is on the line. go ahead. earlieras i was saying -- why don't you sa call it what it is. he straight out lies. there is no way our president is the founder of isis. he should know better. it is not sarcasm, it is a lie. host: next, let's hear from roger. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span.

thank you for c-span. to top before was in regard martha's vineyard. in it, it has an area called "oak bluff." and theblack community influential blacks said go there are probably the supporters of him. it gives him a good feeling to go there and see that. out of all the islands they could go to a new england, they have that which is a wonderful, beautiful place for african americans -- not totally african-americans, but mostly. as for hillary going to martha's vineyard, i don't think she will go there for vacation. the vote, she will

be on her mary way. is tony from indiana. go ahead. caller: hello? host: hello. caller: yes, i believe donald trump would he agree president. he has a lot of strategy. contractery good maker. i think he would be better than obama with knowledge of what needs to be done. john mccain said there is no time for on the job training. i think hillary clinton is a copycat. i think people should hold the vote for october and find out that what happens to the monetary currency values one day drop to the bottom, what with the administration do? i believe trump is the man for the job.

host: up next, arthur from tennessee. go ahead. whenr: yes, i remember dick cheney said the deficit doesn't matter. that lady from kentucky, she needs to look at her senator, the worst senator we ever had. host: all right. virginia on the republican line. good morning. good morning. yes, i would just like to say that hillary clinton, to my mind, is the more dangerous. she does not have regard for putting rules and even americans in danger because of national security reasons. a politician, a good speaker, a good lawyer, who can get away with everything. and all hertewater

talks are related. hillary is the only female to be paid a quarter million just for one speech. the clintons became old and millionaires by being public servants. i would rather vote for an unknown, which may turn out to be a great leader then unknown who has no major a comp insurance after 30 years of public service. host: "the washington journal" this story, "trump adds eight women to economic advisory team."

host: i next caller is danny from kentucky on the democratic line. good morning to you. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. what i was going to talk about is people seem to have in asia about the clinton family, going all the way back to president clinton and his administration. our country was left in the surplus. it did not take long through the selection of the supreme court to put us back with george dubya and an unbelievable $3 trillion debt. i believe hillary clinton might be -- not just might, is the

most qualified and compassionate person for this country, and will be the best leader we may have ever had. thank you so much. host: next up is alex from deerfield each, florida. what is your thought this morning? no one knows exactly what donald trump stands for as it relates to policies because he has these reality tv show strategists that distract from issues of substance. we do know for sure that he has no values. republicans in general need to would we have voted for barack obama or woman if he or she was divorced three times, had five different children from four different women -- according to the republicans,

god,ppeared to be big on giveuld be a mistake to inmps the job of commander chief. trump represents dishonesty with trump university, unpaid workers -- all at the same time will he he pledges loyalty in words, but ask disloyalty. host: we have time for just a few more callers. go ahead, donna. caller: good morning. i have four comments. one is when ever present bush was also a businessman, and look at what he did to our country. i just want to let you think about that. the second thing is hillary can

move right in and take charge and she knows what she is doing. the third thing, please, media, stop giving donald trump all of this attention. i'm glad that we are finally starting to ask some questions, but we are not asking him the hard questions. ok? third, thank you for c-span. have a great day. .ost: all right, donna we will leave it there because our programes this morning. here is a look at what is coming up tomorrow on "washington journal." we will speak with brian nienab ankin. stefan h we will also speak with ali nader. we will see you back tomorrow. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

visit ncicap.org] ♪ > next, a discussion on food policy in the united states. then, lies at 11:00, a rally calling for congress to get and can control reform. >> this is just over one hour.